Hong Kong police have threatened to use live ammunition against hundreds of young protesters barricading themselves inside a major university.
The warning came after a media liaison officer was hit in the leg with an arrow and an armored police vehicle was set on fire during a day-long standoff between protesters and police outside the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
A squad of protesters breakaway from the pack to launch a sideswipe at the police vehicles with fire bombs #HK #HongKongProtests #StandWithHongKong pic.twitter.com/ghTHMBKnHa
— James Pomfret (@jamespomfret) November 17, 2019
By Sunday evening, authorities demanded the roughly 200 protesters who have been shooting arrows and throwing petrol bombs at riot police, to leave the area as they were “planning for the next round of operation”.
They have so far responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons on a resistant crowd wearing raincoats and carrying umbrellas.
As riot police moved in from all sides, some protesters retreated inside the university while others set fires on bridges leading to it.
A Molotov cocktail was hurled at a police vehicle that burst into flames as it tried to enter the PolyU campus.
A huge blaze burned along much of a long footbridge that connects a train station to the campus over the approach to the Cross-Harbour Tunnel, a major road under Hong Kong’s harbour that has been blocked by the protesters for days.
The officer who was shot with an arrow has been hospitalised and is conscious, according to a police statement.
Describing the protesters as “rioters who have lost their rational minds”, Junior Police Officers’ Association chair Lam Chi-wai said officers’ lives had been threatened by “deadly weapons”.
“When a rioter raises a petrol bomb to prepare to throw it, police officers on scene may very likely see it as a deadly attack upon them or others, and use relevant force or a weapon to stop it, including live ammunition,” Mr Lam said in a statement.
Inside Poly U now with a Reuters team. We’ll stay whatever happens. A sense of foreboding amid grave fears of a bloody showdown, hundreds of tenacious and desperate protesters trapped on all sides by police, some highly on edge #HK #HongKongProtests #StandWithHongKong
— James Pomfret (@jamespomfret) November 17, 2019
During a live Facebook broadcast, police spokesman Louis Lau issued an official warning to protesters who had been using deadly weapons against police.
“I hereby warn the rioters: stop using petrol bombs, arrows, vehicles or any other lethal weapons to attack police officers, and stop all acts of assault. If they continue these dangerous acts, we will have no choice but to use the necessary minimal force, including live ammunition, to hit back”, Mr Lau said.
【警方快訊 · 直播】就有關香港理工大學的最新情況，警司劉肇邦現作出簡報。Superintendent Louis Lau Siu-pong is now giving a briefing regarding the latest situation of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
Posted by 香港警察 Hong Kong Police on Sunday, November 17, 2019
Riot police shot several volleys of tear gas at protesters, who sheltered behind a wall of umbrellas and threw petrol bombs into nearby bushes and trees, setting them on fire.
PolyU Governing Council's student member Owan Li told reporters – holding back tears – that he feared a repeat of the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre in his own university, and called on alumni to help the students inside.
Photo: Apple Daily screenshot. #hongkong pic.twitter.com/UfckazpLyt
— Hong Kong Free Press (@HongKongFP) November 17, 2019
The protesters held their ground for most of the day, as water cannon trucks drove over bricks and nails strewn by protesters to spray them at close range – some with water dyed blue to help police identify protesters afterward.
Protesters began retreating into the university near sunset, fearing they would be trapped as police fired tear gas volleys and approached from other directions.
The protesters have barricaded the entrances to the campus and set up narrow access control points.
They are the holdouts from larger groups that occupied several major campuses for much of last week.
Another group threw bricks in the street to block a main thoroughfare in the Mongkok district, as police fired tear gas to try to disperse them.
The disruption to Nathan Road traffic may have been an attempt to distract police during the standoff at Polytechnic.
-with AAP/agencies
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